Re: [xmca] intonation and meaning

[Ng Foo Keong <lefouque@gmail.com>]

Certainly you can satrically imitate another dialect / sub-dialect of Cantonese
(e.g. Toishanese, Yangjiang dialect) using a different intonation patterns, a
different vocabulary and different ways of articulation.

You can use a different intonation pattern for selected words (the
listener can tell
you did it on purpose) to create a humorous effect.

One Hong Kong entertainer did a stand-up comedy by imitating the
"lazy-pronunciation"
Cantonese habits among many young HK speakers of today.

Your question contains the word "prefer", which makes the question
difficult to answer.
That sounds like a topic for a whole PhD study.

F.K.



2009/5/3 Jay Lemke <jaylemke@umich.edu>:
> .... Do very intonationally complex tone languages
> (where word and phrase level intonations change core meaning) like Cantonese
> prefer non-intonational means for expressing irony or indicating that
> something is meant to be taken humorously?
>
> JAY.
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